Death and injury in motor vehicle crashes can be greatly reduced by the use of safety belts. Studies based on claimed use result in inflated estimates of use and questionable correlations with social and other factors. This study of visually observed driver's use or nonuse of safety belts found education, comfort and convenience ratings of safety belts, having had a friend injured in a crash, and not smoking while driving to be additively associated with safety belt use. Having had a friend killed in a crash was not related to belt use. Fear of being disabled or disfigured appears to be more conscious and motivational than fear of death in a crash.
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Robertson et al. (1972) studied this question.